Telegram, which in January added over 100 million new users, has made it official to bring the chat history from WhatsApp to its website.
Apart from iOS, Telegram officially announced about the availability of this feature on Android devices. The function arrived with version 7.4 on iOS, launched on Wednesday and discovered by 9to5Mac.
Informed by Telegram’s iOS changelog, apart from WhatsApp, it is also possible to import chat histories from Line and KakaoTalk.
The inclusion of the feature came as Telegram recorded enormous rises in user numbers, with the service now owning more than 500 million worldwide active users. The reason seemed to be the new privacy policy of WhatsApp, which caused privacy concerns about the messaging app operated by Facebook (WhatsApp laterpostponed the implementation of the new policy, and maintains that it would not impact the protection of user chats or profile data).
Telegram stated that it checked that users can import WhatsApp chats into the new version (7.4.1) of Telegram on iOS and continue the conversation as long as there is a Telegram account for each WhatsApp user.
How Does the Import Process Work?
Telegram can now import your WhatsApp chat history. The import method operates on a chat-by-chat basis, but with WhatsApp it seems to work with both individual and group conversations.
In order to import a chat from WhatsApp on iOS, open the required conversation, and click on the group or contact name from above the chat to open its details screen.
And then the ‘Export Chat’ option will open the iOS Share Sheet which will enable the option to select Telegram.
As a final step, choose the Telegram chat that needs to be imported with the messages.
However, on Android the ‘Export Chat’ option can be found by clicking on the three dots at the top right corner, and next clicking ‘more’.
Any messages imported into chats have a tiny “Imported” mark on them that shows when they were first sent, and when they were passed to the Telegram, and it was also noted that messages can be seen by all chat members. Imported messages appear not in the order they were originally sent, but in the order in which they are imported. Although, users have an option of choosing whether to import the facebook messaging app’s chat histories with or without images.
Telegram highlighted, Press and hold on the Next and Previous buttons to quick-forward and rewind if you need to skip ahead or repeat anything you skipped.
Other than this feature there are also other features added to Telegram such as some recent privacy updates for both parties at once, including the ability to uninstall groups, secret chats, and call history.
In this update, with new volume controls, Voice Chats have also been upgraded with addition of an improved audio player where users press the author’s name in the player while a track is playing to find their tracks from all the chats.
A new reporting option for fake networks or groups, improved connectivity with TalkBack and VoiceOver, and also new greeting stickers to launch new conversations have been included in other tweaks.
For Android apps, improved animations around the board are another notable improvement. Telegram does not mention all of the updates, but when downloading files, playing music, or loading chats, they provide new animations.
Telegram said that for all listeners, changes made by group administrators are applied. Users will be able to identify the groups that have active voice chats, from the Call History page.
Telegram has seen a large uptake of new users after a new data sharing controversy was sparked by WhatsApp’s new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. It was mentioned that to be able to carry their chat history with them means one less obstacle in transferring jumping ship from WhatsApp to Telegram.
Other Additions
Telegram can now import your WhatsApp chat history . It has also added video calling support and prepared chat bubbles for Android 11.
I’m Ava Paul, an experienced news website author with a special focus on the entertainment section. Over the past five years, I have worked in various positions of media and communication at World Stock Market. My experience has given me extensive knowledge in writing, editing, researching and reporting on stories related to the entertainment industry.
